Dean Saunders knew Wolves faced troubled times
Dean Saunders today claimed he suspected Wolves might face a relegation fight from when he was appointed in January.
Boss Saunders took over when Wolves were 18th, nine points off the play-offs and six points off the drop zone.
At the time the 48-year-old was forecasting a play-off challenge, but he changed his mind when the team failed to win any of his first nine games.
Saunders said: "It (relegation threat) was always there – we were six points off the drop zone so we were always looking over our shoulder, because when I got the job the board asked me and I said 'we're not safe yet'.
"Since then we've won five, drawn five and lost eight – that's 20 points, which should be enough to stay up."
Saunders blames injuries on the slump, adding: "We've had nine players out who could consider themselves starters, so we've had injuries at the wrong time.
"When we beat Birmingham I said I'd give those points back if we could have Sylvan Ebanks-Blake fit and everyone laughed at me. I knew what was in front of us and Bakary Sako was already injured, so the people with a scoring record aren't playing, which has killed us a bit."
